The Best Man’s Speech

The day is finally here. I imagine you have been thinking about it for months. All the guests are waiting expectantly and your heart is pounding.

It’s showtime boys!

So how do you get through it?

Well there are no shortcuts but if you follow some of these handy tips you won’t go far wrong. I am not going to give you tips about the content of the speech as this is a personal thing and we all have all lived through incidents and immediately thought, “This would be great for the best man’s speech!”

The tips below are guidelines to help with the practicalities of writing down and performing the speech and it certainly helped me. Public speaking is a nerve racking affair but if you want to learn how to get over stage fright and you follow these guidelines you can’t go far wrong.

(1) Don’t write it down word for word

If you write it word for word you will end up reading it word for word. Unless you’re Bill Clinton you will struggle to inject much personality or charisma into the speech as you will be too wooden – too structured.

Instead make bullet points. These should be the stories and topics you want to cover and should only be long enough so that you know what it means. So if it’s a story about how the groom got drunk and slept on a bench, a simple ‘drunk on bench story’ would probably suffice.

This means that once you’ve got the reminder you can actually tell the story as you remember it rather than reading it. Hell you may even enjoy the experience!

(2) Make The Bullet Points Clear

You need to be able to locate the next part of the speech very quickly. If you are trying to read your writing you could end up panicking, I often write my bullet points in block capitals so that they jump out at me.

Also make sure that there is a space between each bullet point. You want to be able to very quickly cast your eye over your notes and it is more difficult to separate them if they are too close together.

You should also ensure that the words are LARGE. Most people hold their best man’s speech in their hands but ideally you will want it on the table in front of you so that you can keep your head up and look at the audience. When you are ready for the next segment, just cast your eyes down at the paper and the next bullet point should be very clear.

(3) Practice It!

Public speaking requires practice and you should aim to practice your speech fully at least 10 times. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean reading it out loud. In an ideal world you will perform it out loud in front of friends but if this isn’t an option do it on your own. Don’t just perform it either, visualising the speech can work almost as well.

When you go to bed, imagine yourself sitting down as you are introduced as the best man. Keep doing this until you really feel like you are there.

Then practice the entire speech in your head. Imagine yourself giving a confident, fearless performance with everyone laughing at all of your jokes. This may seem very difficult at first as you have become accustomed to feelings of dread and the only images you have had in your head have been of the speech going horribly wrong. The more you practice this the easier you will find it to conjure up images and feelings of success.